Left turn onto SW Olga from Admiral Way?

[pbgirl423]

Does anyone know the rules about driving into those two yellow lines going up Admiral Way in order to take a left onto SW Olga (where the new light was installed)? The re-striping has got me confused now because it looks like it has been restricted to turn there now unless you stop on Admiral and block traffic behind you.

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[Karl]

These links may be helpful:

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikeprojects/sw_admiral_way.htm

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/sw_admiral_projectPlanMap.pdf

(you can zoom in to the specific area of concern)

Admiral Way restriping will keep existing lanes, city announces

http://seattlelikesbikes.org/wordpress/?p=501

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[JanS]

there are two northbound lanes, if I’m seeing this correctly. So, if you’re turning left onto SW Olga, through traffic still has the right lane to go around you and continue. There is no longer a dedicated left turn lane..correct? It’s just like turning left from any road that has 2 lanes in the same direction. Yes, it’s different than it was, but those behind you should be using the right lane anyway. That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway.

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[tk]

Actually, there still is a dedicated left turn onto Olga at the top of the hill, thankfully. It is painted with a set of solid yellow lanes which widen and form the left turn space which is a full 10′ wide. If you look at the diagram (see link above), it shows the turn lane to be only 5 ft. wide, so I called the lead engineer before the painting and was assured that 5 ft. was a mistake, and there would still be a full 10′ wide left turn lane- which there is.

What does look different is that the left turn lane doesn’t seem to extend as far downhill/in advance, so not as many cars can be safely in the left turn lane waiting to cross as before (many times in the pm I see 3-4 cars there). This will create a problem, as all the uphill 30mpg+ traffic in the left lane will suddenly have to merge just before the light, at the top of the hill before a curve, with the uphill bike lane ending, AND a turn-out for the view parking section, all at once!

One other interesting note:

SDOT/Metro finally came up with the info. that approx 8 (yes, only eight) bus riders each day cross Admiral Way to get on (or off) a bus headed down the hill. Most City View residents choose to take the bus to/from town on the Harbor Ave. side. Actually, the small painted island will help vehicles turning in/out of City View Street. I used to live on City View, and it was very scary to try to turn left sometimes, when returning from the Admiral district & trying to turn left without being rear-ended.

I wonder how many bike riders will actually use the new uphill lane? From a biking point of view, I think the new “improvements” aren’t worth losing the nice wide downhill lanes that gave a whole lot more room before.

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[JanS]

thanks, tk… I drove by yesterday for the first time since it had been repainted, and couldn’t recall if it was a dedicated lane or not. That cleared things up for me.

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